This Okanagan winery is celebrating another major competition win

Corks were popped in celebration at a local winery to mark its third win at the National Wine Awards of Canada.

CedarCreek Estate Winery competed against 250 others, and thousands of wine submissions, and came out victorious.

“For me it’s really, really exciting,” winemaker Taylor Whelan told Kelowna10. “This is pretty much the biggest Canadian wine award that you can win. It’s a show that stretches across Canada.”

Out of the several wines CedarCreek submitted, the ones Whelan said performed best were two of their Chardonnays - Block 5 and Jagged Rock - two Rieslings - Aspect and Home Block - as well as a Syrah and a rosé.

He said there really isn’t one sole thing he can attribute to the success of the winery, citing each grape, site, stage, and individual as integral to the process.

“A lot of it comes back to the vineyards that we have, we’ve got some pretty special sites in the Okanagan valley,” he said. “We also have an incredibly dedicated team in the vineyard, and in the winery.”

CedarCreek proudly touts it's shift to regenerative farming and 100 per cent organic winemaking.

“Regenerative farming is really the next step beyond organic farming,” Whelan explained. “It looks to build health in the vineyard, instead of saying, 'here’s what you can’t do', regenerative farming says, 'here’s what you should do to build a strong ecosystem.'”

He said organic growing focuses on certain things you are not allowed to do, such as using certain pesticides, but that using both methods of organic growing and regenerative farming in tandem, the quality of their fruit is vastly improved.

For more than 40 years, CedarCreek has produced wines in an area with unique soil characteristics that overlooks Okanagan Lake, in the sub-geographical indication (sub-GI) of South Kelowna Slopes. Sub-GIs are an official protected term under B.C. law, used to help consumers identify B.C. wines’ origins.

Two other Kelowna wineries also ranked among the top ten at the awards, with Spearhead Winery at third place, and Mission Hill Family Estate Winery coming in fourth.

The National Wine Awards of Canada saw 24 judges taste 1,890 entries. This is the third time CedarCreek Estate Winery has won winery of the year; its previous wins were in 2005 and 2001.